Waiting room, the judges were seated on the sofa and looking at the things over the table. Those were simple things. Photographs. Precisely speaking, the participants photographs. They were looking at a total of 27 photos. Emily opened her mouth.
“Is there any participant you consider worthy?”
“This one. He is the one who has mastered most of the basics.”
The picture Alan chose, was Anderson’s. Emily tilted her head and opened her mouth.
“Anderson? Doesn’t he lack creativity? He can give flavor, but that’s on the level of a 3 minute instantaneous cooking.”
“I wonder. You can’t know if he is hiding his abilities on purpose or not. At least his skills were excellent. His appearance when making the catfish steak amazed you.”
“ What if he amazes me. He made a crap dish with those amazing skills. Normal people would eat that thing, but for me, it was a sickly flavor. It was as if I had already tried it a thousand times.”
What Anderson showed was catfish steak with onion pure. At that moment, Emily remembered the flavor once more and frowned. The feeling as if you had already tried it somewhere else. Anderson was a chef with no sudden twists. And Emily was already sick of those kinds of chefs. Alan looked at Emily and replied calmly.
“……If you have skills, then your personality is meant to follow. However, i want to bet on him. He has the most chances from this messy people. Emily, what about you?”
Emily smiled at what he had said and extended her finger. Her long and slender index finger pointed one photograph. Kaya Lotus’s photograph.
“I will bet on her.”
“……Kaya Lotus? She does indeed have skill…..”
Alan frowned. Certainly, Kaya was a charming participant. Her signature menu, the grilled eel, was close to a master’s skill. In the whole world, there was no one who could cook grilled eel like Kaya. However.
“Her cooking isn’t framed. Nor has an identity. If you take a dog as an example, she would be a cross breed.”
“You heard the contents of the interview. She comes from a market. The dishes that have freedom are her identity. I think so.”
Emily’s voice was firm. It seemed as if she has really taken a liking to Kaya. Alan didn’t particularly refute Emily. Because evaluating a dish is personal freedom.
Alan looked at Joseph again. He didn’t say anything, but Joseph could guess what Alan would have wanted to say. Joseph opened his mouth.
“I still don’t know.”
“Even so, you must have someone you have taken a liking to?”
“I wonder… I like both of the participants you have chosen. Excluding those two, another impressive friend would be Chloe. And….”
Joseph’s words couldn’t be heard clearly, but his sight was looking at a person from the photographs. Alan followed Joseph’s sight. And when he looked at the person he was looking at, and said as if he was amazed.
“Minjoon? No, you are keeping in mind that person?”
“It’s not that I’m keeping him in mind. Simply, he seemed like a person who always shows the utmost of his skills. But I do kind of expect what kind of dish he will be making when he grows.”
“……….Honestly speaking, it’s unexpected. He does have a kind of a base, and even those left on the competition have similar skills like him. Not to talk if he is compared to Kaya or Anderson.”
“Of course, I’m not saying that he is going to win. Compared to Anderson and Kaya, his skills are lacking. I’m just expecting something as a chef. How would that little friend grow. That kind of expectation.”
Joseph looked at Jo Minjoon’s photo. The reason Joseph expected something from Jo Minjoon was simple. A dish that surpassed his skills. And two times at that. There were parts lacking on handling the knife and the use of fire, put the recipe was perfect and didn’t have any flaws. That was the reason Joseph viewed Jo Minjoon so highly.
“I believe that he will at least make a dish better than chewing running shoes.”
–
“Say the truth. You like her, right?”
Martin’s interviewing popped all of a sudden out of nowhere like last time. Jo Minjoon couldn’t get what Martin was implying. Jo Minjoon frowned and asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“Kaya Lotus. I mean her.”
Martin said while laughing mockingly. Jo Minjoon let out a sigh and even before he could reply, Martin continued speaking.
“Don’t tell me that you like her as a chef like last time. No matter how you look at it, wasn’t trading your dishes a little too serious? I, who was looking, got more flustered.”
“…….As I told you last time, it’s not like that. That was just adoration from a fan…..”
“Mister Jo Minjoon. Let’s be honest. Kaya just started broadcasting. And just cooked twice. How could that come from a fan?”
Jo Minjoon couldn’t reply anything. He didn’t even know what to reply. He couldn’t just say the he saw her broadcasting from the future, and since then became her fan.
Jo Minjoon started to think. What would be the wisest thing to reply? No, what would be the most comfortable? The conclusion was simple. It was just letting him do as he pleased.
“Fine. Edit it however you want it.”
“……..Yes?”
“That if you want, you can edit it as if I do like her. It’s not as if I do have someone I like. And I’m not even married. I’ll understand the editing as a fun for the broadcast and agree to it.”
As Jo Minjoon said that, Martin put on an odd face. It was true that he had asked Jo Minjoon about how he felt about Kaya for the sake of the broadcast, but that was because it did look like he felt something for her. But now he was telling him that that was not the case?
‘……….Is he doing it on purpose because he’s embarrassed?’
From Martin’s point of view, you couldn’t help but think like that. Martin said with a voice he didn’t want to believe.
“……Are you really not?”
“I already told you I’m not. It’s entirely liking her as a chef.”
“No, even so, isn’t she a beauty? Her attitude is a bit harsh, but she is a charming enough woman to consider. Don’t you look at her as a woman?”
“…..Is looking at her as a woman the same as liking her?”
“No, of course that’s a bit different…..”
Martin looked at Jo Minjoon with a bugging face. It was really difficult to understand him. Is Jo Minjoon really saying the truth? That he became a fan to a person he saw for the first time? Was Kaya’s grilled eel and tangsuyuk that impressive?
Even if he thought deeply about it, he couldn’t see what a person was thinking about. Martin let out a sigh and changed the question.
“So, how was the flavor of the tangsuyuk you traded? Was it better than your catfish meatball stew?”
“I think that the end result of the dish is similar.”
“How many points out of 10?”
“7 points.”
Jo Minjoon’s voice was firm. He didn’t think twice, nor wonder. Martin remembered the words Jo Minjoon said to the cameraman. He heard from him that Jo Minjoon had said that his bream dish was 7 points. On what standards could that be?
“What extent is 7 points?”
“It’s the utmost I can cook right now. If you are a chef like Kaya, it’s something you get on average.”
“I can’t seem to understand that calculation. Is there anything special?”
“The recipe used, the effort on cooking, and the fresh ingredients would be it. It would be difficult to put it in words. However I am confident on this much.”
Jo Minjoon’s eyes shined. He said confidently like never before.
“My evaluating points are correct.”
“……I wonder. If it’s the same dish, won’t it vary according to the person who made it? I don’t think there’s a definite point…..”
“Of course, there’s personal taste. However, when you don’t take that into account, my points would be correct objectively speaking.”
“Then I wonder how will you evaluate the participants dishes from now on. Good. Let’s move on to the next question. You came all the way over here from Korea. Are you confident on winning?”
Jo Minjoon kept his mouth shut at that question. He looked at a glass table which had nothing on top for a while, and barely said.
“In my life, there has never been something as confirmation. If it’s about cooking, then all the more so. The reason I came to Grand Chef was to gain that confirmation.”
“……..What kind of confirmation?”
Jo Minjoon replied. It seemed as an earnest voice.
“If I’m allowed to be a chef. I wanted to get that confirmation from myself. No, I want to get that confirmation.”
< Comprehension towards the broadcast (1) > End
Translator’s note: Regular chapter! Okay, so there’s been a great reaction towards Kaya and Jo Minjoon. Do you want to know how they end up? Keep reading hehehe
Regulars being on: Tue, thurs, sat and sun
Translator : Subak
Proofreader : Maled